Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Blackwater Kicked Out of Iraq

The Blackwater company has been kicked out of Iraq for the murder of eight civilians. For those of you that don't know, Blackwater is a private firm that fields mercenary forces to protect diplomats and business interests in foreign countries. Sound like a job for the US Armed Forces right?Well, not exactly. The US military may have a great deal of manpower and firepower, but the US military does not have the kind of personnel needed for every sort of mission in Iraq; some of these missions are very important to the backer of this war.

To put this in perspective, let's look at the partially successful invasion of South Vietnam by the United States of America. It was a success in that it destroyed most of the Vietnamese infrastructure and economic base; it was a failure for public relations reasons. To the American public, the war just couldn't be portrayed as victorious in the conventional sense because suspension of disbelief has it limits. Vietnam was on TV every night and the conscript soldiers drafted to fight it came home and told the people what the war was really about.Drafted conscripts are not good for colonial actions. The best troops for colonial actions are cutthroats that are both professional and apolitical. Units like the old-school French Foreign Legion or the Merc Units that fought in Africa.

This is where Blackwater comes in. We have professional soldiers answering directly to the Profit Speculator. I am downright surprised that Blackwater got its card pulled. I expected them to operate under the public radar indefinately.